Book Review: The Eleventh Plague

Deadly diseases lurk all around us. Anthrax, MRSA, West Nile Virus, SARS, and Avian Influenza, have all been in the media so much over the past 8 years that these deadly little creatures are becoming famous around the world. Throughout history, plagues have been documented and recorded, and the majority of them are naturally occurring phenomena. The Bubonic Plague that destroyed one-third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages, the Spanish Flu that is estimated to have killed 50,000 people, and smallpox outbreaks that occurred throughout history, are all examples of plagues that could not be prevented, nor forseen.

"The Eleventh Plague", a novel written by John S. Marr, M.D., M.P.H, and John Baldwin, poses the question "What if the biblical plagues began to occur all across the U.S., but this time, they are man-made". From the first page, this book takes you through unexplained death and disease, swarms of killer bees arising out of nowhere to attack innocent people, brownies laced with a toxin producing fungus and mailed out to hundreds, and purified anthrax spores put into a child's toy watergun for the sole purpose terrorizing the medical community.

Though I state this book is medical mystery, the suspense is not produced in a normal who-done-it fashion. The perpetrator, a murderous toxicologist with a grudge, is one of the main characters throughout the story, and it is quickly understood by the reader that he is responsible. However, this fact does not make it any less intense. Each page brings with it a new desire to find out what he will do next, and how he can create some of the most potent scientific concoctions, and then spread them to others without getting caught.

There are underlying twists to the story, involving the infectious disease specialist called in to consult on many of the "plagues". He is the moderator of a scientific networking site called ProMed (which by the way, is a genuine site created to allow rapid communication between various types of medical experts), and he uses the site to help him put together all of the pieces of this puzzle.

With the recent suicide of the man responsible for the anthrax attacks in 2001, this book is terrifyingly close to reality. Although all methods described in the book for the production of these agents are fictional, it is easy to imagine the possibility of a mad man getting his hands on these lethal microbes, and modifying them for the sole purpose of terrorizing a nation.

I genuinely recommend this book to everyone. Even without a medical background, this novel will amaze you. It is extremely well written, and though fictional, the plot is not outside of the realm of possibility.